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The sister of a man who died in the Hillsborough disaster has cast doubt on whether a law aimed at preventing official cover-ups can ever truly work “until they start sending people to prison”.

A new report into calls for a “Hillsborough Law”, published by parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), has recommended the government consider introducing a statutory “duty of candour” for all public bodies.

Campaigners want the new legislation to prevent a repeat of the experiences of families of the 97 fans who were killed in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster from happening again.

In June 2021, two police forces agreed to pay damages to more than 600 survivors of the Hillsborough disaster and the family members of victims following a cover-up of the tragedy.

Louise Brookes, whose brother Andrew Mark Brookes was one of the Hillsborough victims, told Sky News that, while she welcomes the principle of a Hillsborough Law to prevent cover-ups in future, she is concerned at how seriously the duty of candour would be taken.

Andrew Mark Brookes

“You will never get people to tell the truth when it’s not in their best interests when they are protected by their bosses, when it’s the establishment,” she said.

“Until they start sending people to prison, nothing is going to change in this country.”

Pressure for a new law increased this week after the report of the inquiry into the infected blood scandal found it “could largely have been avoided” and that there was a “pervasive” cover-up to hide the truth.

The JCHR said it heard from witnesses who felt the lessons of Hillsborough “remained unlearnt” and some of the same issues continued to have an impact at other major hearings including the Manchester Arena inquiry.

“People need to understand that these cover-ups traumatise us for life,” Ms Brookes said.

She said victims of a series of scandals have experienced it.

Read more:
Liverpool fan running 227 miles in call for Hillsborough Law
100 faces of the infected blood scandal

Louise Brookes says people need to go to prison for the law to be effective. Pic: PA
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Louise Brookes says people need to go to prison for the law to be effective. Pic: PA

Andrew Mark Brookes (centre)
Image:
Andrew Mark Brookes (centre)

Ms Brookes continued: “For us, the truth is these lies ruin our lives and have sent some people to their graves.

“Individuals need to find their moral compass.”

Last year, in a response to a report on Hillsborough by the former bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones, the government stopped short of introducing legislation, instead proposing a pledge to put the public interest ahead of its reputation.

But JCHR chairwoman Joanna Cherry KC said: “All of us on the human rights committee have huge respect and admiration for the courage and fortitude of the families of those who died at Hillsborough and the survivors. Just this week we have also seen how the victims of the infected blood scandal had to go through a similar struggle.

“It is shameful that their pain was compounded by the delays and obfuscation they faced in their search for the truth, and the decades they had to wait for justice.

“Even so many years later, lessons still have to be learnt to ensure that these failures are not repeated.”

Infected blood victims and campaigners protest on College Green in Westminster, London calling for action on compensation payments for victims of the infected blood scandal. Picture date: Wednesday February 28, 2024.
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Infected blood scandal victims and campaigners protest on College Green in Westminster as they call for compensation. Pic: PA

Solicitor Elkan Abrahamson, a director of the Hillsborough Law Now campaign, told Sky News that the public was “fed up with officials lying all the time” and that victims were currently suffering a double injustice.

“There is an impetus from the public for this to be enacted.

“When you ask bereaved families what they want to achieve, almost always the answer is ‘We don’t want this to happen to anyone else’. When they see the government or other public officials covering up what went wrong that almost wounds them psychologically.

“It compounds the trauma they suffered in the first place. It is offensive, not just to the bereaved, but to us as a society.”

In response to the JCHR report, the Cabinet Office pointed to remarks by the Paymaster General John Glen in the Commons on the infected bloody inquiry report this week.

He told MPs that on issues like duty of candour “progress is being made in different ways”.

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Heathrow bosses ‘warned about substation’ days before major power outage, MP committee hears

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Heathrow bosses 'warned about substation' days before major power outage, MP committee hears

Heathrow Airport bosses had been warned of a potential substation failures less than a week before a major power outage closed the airport for a day, a committee of MPs has heard.

The chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee Nigel Wicking told MPs of the Transport Committee he raised issues about resilience on 15 March after cable and wiring took out lights on a runway.

A fire at an electricity substation in west London meant the power supply was disrupted to Europe’s largest airport for a day – causing travel chaos for around 200,000 passengers.

“I’d actually warned Heathrow of concerns that we had with regard to the substations and my concern was resilience”, Mr Wicking said.

“So the first occasion was to team Heathrow director on the 15th of the month of March. And then I also spoke to the chief operating officer and chief customer officer two days before regarding this concern.

“And it was following a number of, a couple of incidents of, unfortunately, theft, of wire and cable around some of the power supply that on one of those occasions, took out the lights on the runway for a period of time. That obviously made me concerned.”

Mr Wicking also said he believed Heathrow’s Terminal 5 could have been ready to receive repatriation flights by “late morning” on the day of the closure, and that “there was opportunity also to get flights out”.

However, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said keeping the airport open during last month’s power outage would have been “disastrous”.

There was a risk of having “literally tens of thousands of people stranded in the airport, where we have nowhere to put them”, Mr Woldbye said.

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after ‘prolific’ rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after 'prolific' rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.

The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.

Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.

“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
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Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth

Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.

Read more: How a student described as ‘smart and charming’ was unmasked as a prolific sexual predator

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He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.

“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.

“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.

“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”

***ONLY USE IF HE IS CONVICTED OF AT LEAST TWO RAPES***It is feared Zou may have carried out dozens more sex crimes. Pic: Met Police
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Pic: Met Police

Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.

He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.

Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

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Moment police arrest rapist student

Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.

“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.

“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.

“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”

Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”

Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”

The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.

An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.

Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.

A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.

Location of Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich, where 11-year-old girl Kaliyah Coa went into the River Thames on 31/03
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Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames

Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.

He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.

He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”

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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”

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On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.

When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.

Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.

Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.

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